Slip into my thoughts and do watch your step

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Writing When it Isn’t

This is one of those posts where I really get more into what goes into the story than the actual story itself. Because, as you’re gonna see, there isn’t a hell of a lot to the story.

See, I fully to sit down and really get into the story, but the truth is, I had too many distractions. One, I was busy catching up with people I hadn’t seen in a while. Two, I was really sort of burned out from all the writing I did over the weekend, and pushing away this huge cloud of depression that’s hung over me (and is still there, which is why I’m writing at three-thirty in the morning right now), and three, I needed to do research for something, the something being in the excerpt below.

It’s all about Crazy Wanda, who caused me problems. You can see it below, right after the first two paragraphs which were posted in yesterday’s excerpt–

(All excerpts from The Foundation Chronicles, Book Two: B For Bewitching, copyright 2015 by Cassidy Frazee)

“Me? No.” She set the bag on the floor and folded the desk up into the cupboard and shut the doors. “This desk was put in when the building was constructed in 1804.” Deanna chuckled. “You can thank Crazy Wanda for both of those things.”

Annie gave a surprised laugh. “Crazy Wanda?”

Deanna chuckled. “Wanda de Meeuwsen from Dieden, Netherlands, which is still a small down on the southern banks of the Maas River. The story is she showed up before Founder’s Gate one morning in June, 1791, a twenty-one year old woman with a sack full of books and the clothes on her back, and told the then headmistress that she was there to take over as the new Divination instructor.

“Now, things like this didn’t happen too often—in fact this had never happened before. There weren’t many people who knew of the school’s existence, even in Europe, and instructors were personally invited to join the school. And one couldn’t jaunt to the front gate, because the exact location of The Pentagram wasn’t known except to most of the instructors and a few of the advanced students. Which meant someone had to tell her about where the school was located and she hiked there from Gloucester, or she saw it in a vision, which is what she told everyone once they had the chance to sit down and talk.

“The interesting thing—or scary, depending on your point of view—is that the school seer left her position the week before to return to her home in Pennsylvania. The headmistress and coven leaders were still debating who they wanted to invite into the fold to teach, and had yet to reach a decision. There was absolutely no way anyone outside the school, much less someone in Europe, would have that information that soon.” Deanna shrugged. “The leaders assumed that Wanda’s story about having a vision was true, and invited her to teach.

And that’s where I left it off, only two hundred and seventy-eight words into the scene. But it’s that third paragraph that caused me the most problems, because I needed some history for Wanda de Meeuwsen. I mean, I knew she was twenty-one in 1791, which means she was born in The Netherlands in 1770, and I had a vague idea of where she was born, but that’s it. So I had to look.

First off, I needed to find where she was born because it’s important–trust me on this one. So I started looking. I wanted her to come from a village on the shores of the Maas River, which is also known as the Meuse River in France and Belgium. So I had to go looking for a suitable place, and ended up here:

Black arrow marks the spot.

So I had that. Which leads to problem number two, and that is Founder’s Gate. Now I know that in 1791 Founder’s Gate exists, because the school began in 1683, and the Pentagram Walls were one of the first things to go up. Now, I had some old notes located in another source for when everything was built, but what bothered me was that I didn’t have this information on my main time line, which is like saying I didn’t have it right at my fingertips. And that led to this:

Can’t tell a coven leader without a score card.

I decided to update my main timeline with all the good information, which not only included when most of the buildings were constructed, but the lives and times of the Five Founders. Right off the bat you see that Astria Blomqvist, the leader of Cernunnos Cover where my kids hang out, was a few months short of her ninety-ninth birthday when the School at Salem was founded, and that Lucille van der Kroft was nearly fifty years younger. Also, Vivian Lovecraft lived the shortest–6694 weeks, or 46858 days–and that’s probably because sorceresses got the short end of the stick back then, as well as the pointy one. Oh, didn’t I mention she was a sorceress? Probably just a coincidence that Helena and she aren’t related . . .

So now I know when all these things happen, when most of the stuff was built at Salem, and when certain people lived and died. Should be done, right?

Wrong.

See, I had to go into my Blender Map and look up something, and while I was there I started wondering–remember when I said I was going to model Kerry’s broom? Well, you might not, but I do, and I started playing around with forms. Really, if I don’t want to get too fancy it’s all a matter of just sticking certain polygons together and joining them, but I have to get measurements correct, and make sure everything is proportioned right, and that takes time, too. Then I had to remember how to do certain things, and as I did the realization came back that there are certain things in Blender that aren’t easy to do, so you have to do that stuff the old fashion way, which is slowly. I also discovered that I didn’t know how to make the flattened nose of Kerry’s Espinoza, while at the same time I wasn’t interested in doing a hell of a lot of research on the matter . . .

The end result was I modeled his Class 1 Espinoza 4500, and built a couple of stick figures to stand next to it for size reference. You wanna see? Of course you do–

Can you tell which one is supposed to be Annie? I’ll bet you can–

Now, the broom is hovering a little low, and the seat should be a touch thicker, but that’s it: a meter and a half long with the frame about ten centimeters in diameter, which is about the same size as the candle I have sitting next to my computer. Not much to look at, is it? But now that I have this, I can probably model the Class 2 as well. Just need a bigger processor in the back, handlebars, and the canards in the front. Piece of cake.

And that’s what happens when you decide to throw in a witch for a scene. Before you know it, all sorts of other stuff happens.

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12 thoughts on “Writing When it Isn’t”

Whoa ! Well, it’s exactly 2 AM I my neck of the woods… 5 AM there, and I guess, this post is it for the day, yeah ?

Crazy Wanda reminds me of the goofy Divination teacher from HP. You just put yourself in a blender here. You definitely have to tell her story !! You can’t leave us hanging and wondering , what the heck !

So , are you going to tell the story about Crazy Wanda ? I’m so eager to know how she got to Salem ! I don’t know if you need to put her in the book, but it’s so mysterious. Maybe as a bonus story after you write Finis for this second novel ?

It had to be, just like Kerry’s and Annie’s. Most likely, they had been meeting in their dreams, and the teacher told her , hey , I’m going to retire, why don’t you come over and teach . And come to think of it, maybe Annie and Kerry have Divination power too ?

What Has Gone Before

Check the Past by Date

Originally posted on Wide Awake But Dreaming: Let’s have a “I’m in Pain” update first. Well, shoulders are better this morning, but they were on fire most of the night last night, and I was using salve and ibuprofen like it was going out of style for most of the evening. I’m much better this morning,…